Pittsburgh will have the attention of plenty of hockey fans this week thanks to the NCAA Frozen Four being held at Consol Energy Center. Those fans also can head west to Robert Morris University's Island Sports Center on Neville Island and see some additional high-level hockey.

Some of the nation's top high school hockey players will take part in America's Showcase starting Wednesday and running through the title games Sunday.

Twenty boys teams and six girls teams will compete.

In pool play of the boys tournament, Team Pittsburgh is scheduled to play New York at 5 p.m. Wednesday, New England at 3 p.m. Thursday and Midwest at 3 p.m. Friday.

The Team Pittsburgh roster includes seniors Cody Black and Harry Kramer from PIHL Penguins Cup and state champion North Allegheny and senior Josh Singley from Latrobe, which also won PIHL and state titles. Goalie Brian Baker and forward Trevor Recktenwald from Class AAA runner-up Peters Township also will play for the 20-player Team Pittsburgh, which will be coached by Lou Biancaniello from Chartiers Valley.

The Canon-McMillan hockey team will be under new leadership next season as Terry Virtue replaces Yuri Krivokhija, whose contract was not renewed.

A native of Scarborough, Ontario, Virtue has spent 13 years in coaching at various levels, including junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League. He also spent 17 years playing professional hockey in the AHL and NHL with the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.

A little revenge

Last week's softball showdown between the top two teams in Class AAAA might have been a rematch of the 2012 WPIAL championship game, but Hempfield coach Bob Kalp isn't ready to declare his team a runaway favorite after knocking off defending champ Canon-McMillan, 17-6.

“It certainly beats losing to them,” Kalp said. “I think we're confident we can play with them. Next time, it could be a 1-0 game.”

Hempfield (4-1), which moved into a No. 1 ranking, lost to the Big Macs, 1-0, in the regular season last year and also, 4-1, in the title game.

No. 2 Canon-McMillan (3-1) bolted to a 6-0 lead last week before the Spartans used a 14-run third inning to take control.

“They have such a powerful lineup. I knew we'd have to score some runs. As it happened, I didn't believe it,” Kalp said. “We do have a pretty nice lineup, one to nine. Every one of these kids is capable of hitting home runs. Seven of the nine kids have hit home runs in their career for us.

“We always have a chance.”

Kasey Kolick led the Hempfield charge with a 3-for-4 effort, including a grand slam in the third. Taylor Bartlow threw a complete game and hit a three-run homer.

Season shut down

Bishop Canevin's boys volleyball team spent last year playing an exhibition schedule with 12 players with hopes of playing as a WPIAL team this spring.

Those hopes were dashed, however, when only six players came out for the team this season.

“Our enrollment is 400 (students),” athletic director Dan Bowman said. “We have a decent amount of kids on track, baseball and tennis teams. Other kids play AAU basketball. It was just hard to have kids make (volleyball) a priority.”

Bowman said it's possible the program could return. The school is running an eighth-grade tournament this spring to gauge interest in the sport. Canevin again would have to go through an exhibition season before stepping into WPIAL play.

Recruiting

Central Valley senior basketball player Madi Rowan made a verbal commitment to New Hampshire last week after taking an official visit.

“It was a great environment with great girls on the team and amazing coaches,” said the 5-foot-9 guard who averaged 18.3 points. “I had to play point guard this year, but they want me to think about scoring first.”

She also considered St. Peter's, Rider, Fairfield and Florida Gulf Coast.

• Chartiers-Houston senior Garrett Vulcano has accepted a football scholarship from West Liberty. The 6-1, 200-pound linebacker made 130 tackles last season, was named all-state and selected to play in the PSFCA East-West game and Tri-County All-Star Game.

TribLive commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments  either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

Print Source

Welcome to PrintSource, a division of Trib Total Media.

We have established a veteran team that provides daily and weekly newspaper companies with a comprehensive set of services that include design, print, packaging and delivery of their products, all from one source and location.

Gone are the days when each facet of newspaper printing and delivery had to be outsourced to different companies and venues. Now, PrintSource provides a viable solution with just one phone call.

Digital Sales

We offer a wide variety of traditional and new digital advertising options customized to fit your needs!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been a keystone in the community for years, our knowledgeable staff can provide you with a customized package including online banners/advertisements, Social Media Marketing (Facebook / Twitter), Website development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing solutions and much more!

Contact your local sales rep today for details, personalized proposal and a meeting to discuss how we can meet your needs.